Professional Photographers Choose Wooden USB Flash Drives

The last 12 months has seen a large increase in sale of printed and engraved USB flash drives to the Professional and Wedding Photography sector. For many it’s just a natural evolution from CD’s and DVD’s, for others USB flash drives offer a better and more professional way to present their clients work and for some it’s a new revenue stream opportunity.

Clearly these reasons are not mutually exclusive nor are they the whole story of why professional photographers have now decided it’s time to embrace USB sticks but the do represent what we’re told are the primary reasons for the move:

1. CD’s and DVD’s have pretty much had their day and all of a sudden feel “old and traditional” in the same way that vinyl felt dated when people moved to cassettes/CD’s. New generation laptops and Ultra books (which combined account for around 70% of all PC’s purchased) are increasingly shipping without a built in CD or DVD player. Sales of CD’s are now easily outstripped by downloads and games and PC software is cheaper to buy if you don’t want a CD. Whilst CD’s and DVD’s aren’t dead yet we’re not far away from reading them their last rites!

   Rapid take up of tablets like the iPad and Nexus (that ship with no USB port) could cause a similar problem for USB sticks at some time in the future but for now they seem to have taken over as the de facto way to save, store and carry personal data around.

2. Printed and engraved sticks don’t have the same restrictions on their form factor as CD’s and DVD’s (they don’t have to be flat round pieces of polycarbonate plastic) so they come in a wide range of styles, designs and shapes and are manufactured from materials like wood, metal, plastic, leather and PVC. Pretty much all of these can be personalised, printed or engraved and pretty much all of them look (and feel) better and more professional than a CD or DVD with a printed label affixed to them.
3. People will pay a premium for a well-designed, well packaged USB stick and this is particularly true when they are pre-loaded with the wedding or portrait portfolio.

The challenge for Professional Photographers when considering USB flash drives for the first time is which type of drive from the hundreds on offer will best suit their business, their personality and will appeal to their clients. Equally important is the type of packaging or gift box to choose to compliment the drive (well-chosen gift boxes lift the overall perceptions of quality and value). Finally consideration should be given to the performance of the drive – this is an often overlooked area but if standard “promotional drives” are chosen there is a real risk that the drives will be slow and will struggle to handle large files.

One option, when narrowing down which style/type of USB flash drive to buy, is to look at what works for other photographers and use this as a guide.  A particularly popular option is a wooden USB flash drive – these are typically engraved or printed with the photographer’s logo and supplied in a black gift box which again is printed or engraved. Photographers seem to be choosing this option because they look fantastic, they’re warm and tactile, the have an “eco” edge to them and of course they’re not the sort of thing you can pick up a PC World or Fry's!